Could Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom spark an entrepreneur album trend?
(Kim Dotcom)
Kim Dotcom, the founder of the now shut down internet sensation Megaupload, is a fan of an anniversary. The entrepreneur/hacker/DJ, who at 6’7” could himself be described as “mega”, has celebrated the two year anniversary of the day the FBI raided his New Zealand home and closed his file sharing site, by releasing an album yesterday. And launching a new music-sharing service called Baboom.
The album, described as having been inspired by "trance and dance tracks he listened to during his high-speed driving times on the German Autobahn," is currently the only piece of music available for download on Baboom, which is still in beta testing. It’s pretty bad. Here’s the video for the single “Change Your Life.”
It’s not the first time the Megaupload anniversary has been celebrated. Last year Kim Dotcom (real name Kim Schmitz) had a megalolz launch party at his mega mansion to unveil a new file-sharing site called Mega, during which he did a tongue-in-cheek re-enactment of the FBI raid on stage with lots of ladyz.
But it’s also not the first time a former/current chief executive has released an album. Last June ex-Groupon CEO Andrew Mason released a full-length album following his ousting from the tech firm ironically titled, “Hard Workin’.”
"This album pulls some of the most important learnings from my years at the helm of one of the fastest growing businesses in history, and packages them as music," Mason wrote in a blog at the time.
So what about the City? Do we have any musically gifted chief execs releasing albums? Well, not that we know of yet but The Capitalist does happen to know that a certain Deloitte head has his own record label.
Head of Real Estate at Deloitte Andy Rothery started his own record label with his sons a few years ago called Something Nothing Records which has signed a number of bands. We can say for sure, however, unlike Dotcom and Mason – Rothery stays well-away from the mic.
We’re sure there’s more where these guys come from. Do you know of any album releasing chief execs we’ve missed?